The gilded ones - gold hearts

Part 1

Hera had known her blood to run gold way before the ceremony of purity. Whereas most Alaki's blood turns gold by the age of 15 or 16. Hera's did when she was only five years old.
Hera had fallen through the ice into the lake. She drowned. Everyone witnessed. A day later when her mother stood crying at her coffin, suddenly Hera's eyes opened. She awoke. She literally rose from the dead. Mother was so overwhelmed with joy that she ignored the unnatural taferal unraveling in front of her. Her daughter had been brought back to life, as she had begged the Oyomo for. But the cost of this miracle was for her daughter to turn into a demon.

Mother loved Hera so much that she accepted this faith and would help her nevertheless. When the elderly had suggested to behead Hera, mother had insisted she would do it herself. And that she wanted to do it alone, in the woods. And since, everyone believed Hera to be dead. She hid in the shadows of the woods. The woods were the only place where she could show herself and be true. For surely ten years mother managed to keep Hera hidden and cared for and fed her in secret.

That is until one day, at the age of fifteen,  Hera stumbles upon a predator. The beast attacks her. She killed it, but she had bled. The golden blood had dripped on the stone floor. Cleaning it was simply impossible. This soon lead to the hunters of the town finding out about the golden blood. It could only mean one thing: a cursed woman in their midst. The unraveling lead to a hunt. They started with the 15 year olds, and soon went on to every other girl cutting them. Some girls getting seriously hurt in the proces. Hera's mother knew that Hera would never be safe here, not even in the woods. She send for her daughter to flee. Hera, who at first resisted, knew she had to. She left everything she knew and disappeared into the deeper forests.

Here she survived for another three years. She no longer had her mother to rely on, only herself. She taught herself to survive, to hunt, to live. She overcame every predator until one day she stumbles upon a deatshriek. She lived in the north and had only heard talking of the creature, but knew what it was when she was staring at it that exact minute.
Minutes seemed to pass as Hera and the creature stared into each other's eyes. A familiar feeling rumbling inside Of Hera's belly. Nevertheless, she slowly reached for her pach, where her dagger could be found. Before succeeding, the creature had captured her arm in it's and dragged her along. Hera got dragged across what felt like kilometers. Wounds everywhere from all the sticks and stones. By the time the deathshriek came to a halt, the wounds had actually healed. Her mother and Hera had found out long before about this ability to heal, when she had sunken through the ice and drowned.
The deathsriek comes to a halt in front of a cave. Confused Hera looks up. Wondering why the creature had actually released her instead of ripping her limbs apart.

To Heda's suprise a human like form arose from the shadows. "Don't be afraid child" the figure, who Hera could now make out as a female, hushed. Hera turned from the woman to the deathshriek and back, what was happening?

"We will guide you."

We? Then more figures erupted, all woman. They weren't wearing any masks, as the woman back in Irfut. Hera was awed by their beautiful features. For years on end she hadn't seen women up close. She'd only seen women from afar, wearing their masks. But they looked nothing like the woman standing in front of her now. Strong, fierce, beautiful, calm. She wasn't able to make out a word, still wary of the deathsriek closely watching her. And then cringing as more of these creatures appeared in sight.

Suddenly the fear made place for something else. The feeling from earlier. It felt familiar yet she knew she had never felt this before. This feeling, this awareness.
"You feel it, don't you?" The same voice spoke.
"Who are you?" Hera managed to make out.
"We are the ones that are going to manifest you. You are one of us. You will learn our ways. And you will fight with us."

It was all too confusing. Then even more woman and deathshrieks showed up. Why were they standing so still next to eachother? If anything that mother's said is true, than they should have killed all these woman in an instant.
" you feel this, because your are the same. Now tell me child, what is your name?"

" i'm Hera from Itru."

"Where you're from doesn't matter, you belong here now Heda. You can be anything you want. This is your family now."

The words held so much power that I wanted to believe them. Better said, I couldn't not believe them. But why would I believe her? A stranger in the strangest situation.
"You must have so many question, follow me and I will answer all of them." the left lady, dressed in a red robe, speaks up. My instincts will be damned, but I followed her.

The following months I learn about the alaki, about their connection to the deathshrieks, to being bloodsisters, to the actual origin of Otaya and about the locked godessess. In short, they told me everything I knew wasn't true. But deep down, i guess I already knew that. My mother told me I had the body of a demon but a heart of gold. Which is ironic because my blood is indeed gold. And so is the blood of my newfound family and sisters. I wanted to go back to Irfut, to let my mother know I was okay. But the mothers had assured me it wouldn't be safe. Not at war times. After the fights, I was allowed to bring her to the new world. A world I knew was coming, but for which we had to work our butts off first.

The lady of Equus became my mentor and Komako. She trained me. Made me a warrior. She pushed and pushed me. Made me regret not dying under the ice sometimes. But she told me it would all be worht it. I was assigned to a special task. To spy on, and guide, a special someone. I would be spying on and guiding the Nuru. The one that could free the godessess and all our sisters and other woman and the country. For my special mission I needed to befriend Deka of Irfut and report everything back to the lasy of Equus, until Deka was allowed to learn more about her origin.